Chapter 104: 1/4

1/4

“Ugh”

I sat in the conference room the three guys departed from and groaned. Calmly thinking about it, I really can’t help but to grimace. I think I extracted as much info as I could, but I don’t have a criteria to judge which is truth or lie.

I compiled their claims into a memo and groaned.

A common point was that if a monster is absorbed, a drop item is obtained. Speaking of which, I forgot to explain about dissecting. Well, this much should be understood. After that is Weapon Copy. This seems to be a variation from their games. When an already existing weapon of the same class is held, the weapon is released and it becomes possible to equip. In addition, the weapon acts as an agent for production skills such as compounding.

They seem to agree up to here.

Next, lets summarise the different claims in regards to enhancing methods. If each weapon differs, then I won’t understand the characteristics of my shield. I don’t have a game to refer to and the book I read was incomplete.
…though it seems to point at the shield’s power being the nurturing of companions…

Ren
Lv dependence.
Proficiency: Power is raised by using the same weapon
Energy Bestowal: Obtained energy is injected by resetting the proficiency level of a weapon after using it, which releases a hidden power. Another thing, items absorbed by your weapon can be converted to energy.
Rarity Increase: A weapon’s rarity can be raised by infusing energy into it, upgrading it with a comprehensive ability.

Motoyasu
Everything is decided with the weapon. Spirit Enchantments are everything, the original strength of the weapon isn’t very important. Only the stats of what you wield is necessary.
Refining: Strengthening one piece of equipment with an ore.
Spirit Enchant: A special power is awarded by supplying a fragment of the soul of a defeated monster or an item absorbed by your weapon.
Status Enchant: Statuses can be bestowed

Itsuki
The rareness of the weapon is everything, endowments are bonuses.
Reinforcement: Power is enhanced by mounting a specific ore onto the weapon.
Item Enchant: Extract energy from an item absorbed by your weapon into your armour and chances are that attack % will go up.
Job Lv: You can add statuses by using the power of specific monsters or items that are absorbed.

So it’s like this. Everything’s scattered all over the place. Energy, reinforcement, refining, rareness and rarity are all covered. There’s even 3 cases of enchanting.

To begin with, all three thought it was a world in a game, but each one thought of a different game. Moreover, even the genres were different. VRMMO, ordinary MMO, console. I don’t really know VR but it’s unlikely that MMOs and console games have the same system. If it did, it should be a fan-made game.

For some reason, even in my world there are many games that use similar systems. Thinking about it….you can’t really claim that knowledge from another game is a lie. But… Is that really the case?

I shifted my attention to my shield.
I can’t help thinking that somehow the legendary weapons reflect the heart of the possessor. Even the curse series is like that. It wasn’t visible when I examined the skill tree before, but it was revealed due to the rage I had when I thought Firo died.

Yeah. It’s the heart, after all.

It might not have appeared if I had withheld that rage.
Weapon Copy… This isn’t a lie because all three agreed about it. Same with the Drops. But I didn’t understand it. I opened the weapon icon to investigate… Of course I can’t find it.

Is it a completely different category? Could it be a different structure from their theory?
The legendary shield.
It’s…… denial. I’m denying it deep down in my heart. That’s why…. I can’t do things that those guys can do as easily as breathing, isn’t it?
Even though I said I was going to learn from an objective standpoint, isn’t this is just narrowing my outlook.

Drops exist! Copying exists!
I acknowledge this because all three say so. It shouldn’t be wrong.
Believe…. I believe it. I imagine the appearance of the screen with the list of drops from all the monsters I’ve defeated.

I pressed the system menu for the shield. With that, the menu opens with a small sound. All the dissected monster parts that I’ve absorbed until now and item entries appear.

“What the hell is this!”

Belief becoming power…. My skeptic caution limited my possibilities, didn’t it.
… Somehow, when I open the Item Box and click on a monster, I can verify the drops. Ah, herbs for making potions appeared. There’s even ingredients for spirit healing water…
Various things appeared. It would probably be amazing if I took everything out. Also… Ah, there’s quite a bit of trash. There are monster entrails and stuff.

I looked at Itsuki’s Ore.
That he purchased that ore is fact. He even explained how to use it. In that case, I’ll try believing it.

It exists. He was that angry about it. It shouldn’t be a lie.

As I thought that, I tried pressing the Shield Icon…but it didn’t manifest. This is because I’m denying it somehow. That that liar could be telling the truth. Is my faith not enough? It’s like an anime aimed for kids. However… I will believe it.

“Mr. Hero of the Shield?” Shadow addressed me.

However, I decided to believe, for the sake of living, and had a staring contest with the shield.

Is it bad to be deceived. This is the legendary shield. Belief turns into power. This definitely won’t be a liability.
Believe it!

I absorbed the ore I received from Rishia and searched for the corresponding shield. There it is.

To experiment, I tried reinforcing the Shark Bite Shield. I see… I look at the simple reinforcement section which even has a denominator of 20 displayed.
It’s similar to the enhancing method of a monster hunting game in my world.

I say…. It’s fairly common that good evasion is essential. There are also some who say it’s not needed.
There are many shield wielders who are slow-footed…. There’s a tendency of using strong weapons but that is difficult. A combination of a one-handed sword and shield is light and easy to move, but defence is rough and is far from being the strongest. In the game the bow was handy and in saying so, it is quite useful. It could be close to that. Well, there wasn’t anything like magic so it is quite different.

Incidentally, let’s try getting energy from the items absorbed so far.
…there seems to be a variety of effects. Oh? From the Blue Shark’s Intestines, I discover a skill to reduce of damage received by aquatic monsters. Let’s try it. It seems that it’s certain to succeed in the beginning.

And so I continue enchanting it, stopping at 7. The success chance for 8 is quite low.

… Somehow, I feel like battling aquatic monsters with just this so it’s amazing. Anyhow, there’s another gauge; Itsuki called it JOB Lv, I think. I’ll also attempt that.

Defence Job Lv 1
Defence Gauge 0/5

I had absorbed a lot of things, I selected the monster entrails from my dissecting and spammed it.
It looks like the filling of the gauge is slow and needs several items to reach 1.

Defence Gauge 5/5
Gauge Up! [Defensive Power +1]
Defence Job Lv 2

And now the Defence gauge displayed 0/6. I tried to add an item again but Cool Time was displayed. It appears that it needs to be raised at fixed intervals.
It’s so simple. But when it’s all compiled, it seems reasonable. In any case, it may be that the other’s weren’t lying.

First is Ren.
Just like with Itsuki’s case, I open the menu whilst envisioning it and pick the frequently used Chimera Viper Shield.

Somehow the stats have risen incredibly already…. About 1~5 times? It’s defensive power alone is quite substantial. Looks like it’s capped at 100.

When I tap on it with my finger, a system message appears with the words:
Reset the proficiency level?
I hesitantly clicked on [Yes]. When I do, the ability is recovered from the shield.

Acquired 2000 Proficiency Energy.

… As it is, I choose to invest it in the Chimera Viper. Ah, it’s insufficient… the required amount is 4000. For now, I’ll acquire proficiency energy by converting from shields I don’t use. I can hear the sound of something infusing.

UC…… Uncommon. Huh, it’s ability increased by 1~2 times. After that, I attempted a few more times and raised it up to R – rare. With just that, it’s ability rose quite a lot. The increase is also abnormal. The proficiency level was raised by this…… Whoa.

Furthermore, I think of Motoyasu’s claim……. Open it while believing. I’ve now reached the point where I want to believe in everything.
Damn…… I don’t have the ore that Motoyasu uses for refining. That being, I’ll try the Spirit Enchant. I’ve collected a lot of Soul Fragments from this island’s Magenta Frogs so I’ll use that!

Huge! The magic power bestowed is huge!
Ah, it can be reset. But there’s only a small amount of ingredients so lets just leave it.
The shield became remarkably stronger than before. A few stats are hard to understand, but I can see that they are pros. I’m especially bewildered that Ren’s Rarity and Itsuki’s Rareness are similar but have different restrictions. It won’t do to not remember it.
Incidentally, I looked over the Help section

“……”

Sure enough, everything has been added. This is…… Right, at this rate I should be able to also use the systems of the Net Games that I know.

“Huh?”

No matter how much I fiddle, nothing’s happening despite visualising it in my mind. I’ve already strengthened substantially so I can’t complain, but I just can’t grasp it. In any case…….

“Shadow……”
“What is it?”
“Please inform the other Heroes. Tell them that ‘Everything that you guys said was true. No one lied. They must truly believe or it won’t work.’”

To think it became like this. Come to think of it, the queen spoke of it before. If you compare the Pope’s replica to the real thing, it only has ¼ of the power. I became able to comprehend the meaning of that. No, if one is careless, it exceeds it. It’s good to enjoy jumping ahead but if this condition is supposed to be the original state then its the worst case scenario…… that can’t be it.